Boy, 5, begged fake British Gas worker 'don't hurt mummy' as knife held to neck

A gang of robbers threatened to slit a five-year-old boy's throat and stole thousands of pounds in cash after breaking into a family's flat.

The terrified child begged the masked intruders not to hurt his parents as they held a knife to his mum's throat and threatened to cut his dad's hand off during the burglary in Birkenhead on January 25, 2022.

One of the men, former takeaway owner Haneef Chowdhury, had visited the address days earlier posing as a British Gas worker as part of an apparent reconnaissance mission.

At Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, Chowdhury, 29, of no fixed address, was jailed for 14 years and handed an indefinite restraining order, the Liverpool Echo reports.

The court heard Chowdhury was one of three men who targeted an apartment on Borough Road, where a couple lived with their then five-year-old son. His two accomplices have never been traced.

Gerry Baxter, prosecuting, said a knife was held to the mother's throat, while the father's hand was held over a radiator as the gang threatened to chop it off. He said the little boy "begged and pleaded with them not to hurt his mummy and daddy".

The incident lasted for around half an hour, during which time the flat was "ransacked" and around £6,000 in cash and jewellery were stolen.

Mr Baxter added: "The Crown's case is that the robbery had been carefully planned, and this defendant not only visited the area on a number of occasions, but he was the one who went to the front door of the flat pretending to be an employee of British Gas.

"[The mother's] evidence was that he seemed to be trying to get into the flat, but she did not allow him in."

In a statement read to the court on his behalf, the father detailed how he had been left with memory problems as a result of the punches he sustained during the incident and had to travel to Bangladesh to have his teeth fixed, having been unable to afford the dental work in the UK.

Chowdhury had no previous convictions at the time of the robbery, although he was subsequently jailed for 31 months in 2025 for possession of class A drugs with intent to supply.

Philip Tully, defending, told the court that the two other offenders had threatened and attacked the victims while his client remained in another room, adding: "We say that there is a marked difference between the role he played and the other two males who threatened and used violence towards the victims.

"We say the evidence supports his assertion that he was in some way recruited by others. He says he was told by others that the property would be empty. The evidence supports, in my respectful submission, that he was the third person in the address.

"He accepts that he was the man described as the British Gas man who went to the address a few days earlier. Certainly, he played an important role, but not a leading role in relation to the threats and level of violence that took place."